Thursday, September 13, 2007

Windsor McCay and Little Nemo: The Dream Master

So, the first week of school has come and gone and the work is starting to pile up! I actually just came home from school about half an hour ago, yeeesh. Anyway, it's fun times still (even though it's a lot of work) and I enjoy one class in particular, Animation history class!

Now I know, w-t-f, history? (No not Work Time Fun, lol) But it's more interesting than regular history, hell, it's more interesting than a lot of non-history things too! We learned about the father of Animation, Windsor McCay. He is responsible for making Animation what it is today. Just watching his animations made me want to animate and get better.

Winsor McCay (September 26, 1867(?) – July 26, 1934) was a prolific artist and pioneer in the art of comic strips and animation. His comic strip work has influenced generations of artists, including creators such as Moebius, Chris Ware, William Joyce, and Maurice Sendak. His early animated films far outshone the work of his contemporaries, and set the model to be followed by Walt Disney and others. His two best-known creations are the newspaper comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, which ran from 1905 to 1914, and the animated cartoon Gertie the Dinosaur, which he created in 1914.

I was surprised to find that he made Nemo in Slumberland! Why, you ask? Well, back in 1990 Capcom released a game called Little Nemo: The Dream Master for the NES. I remember playing that game and thinking how awesome the gameplay and storyline were so I was excited to find out the connection. Anyway, just being geeky, I thought that connection was pretty cool (well the game is based off the movie, based off the comic), now I want to get the old Nemo comics.

Oh, and in case you've never played the NES game, click here to see a video.